E18: Xero's Tamara Somers on Sustainable SaaS, Carbon Accounting Partnerships, And More

Xero, the online accounting software provider, is striving to decarbonize its business while also assisting partners and customers with carbon accounting strategies. How so? Tamara Somers, general manager of sustainability and impact at Xero, shares some key updates in this podcast.

Our conversation covers Somers' career path from mining to telco services and SaaS -- and her continuous focus on sustainability. We dive into some nuances about Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 carbon accounting. We recap the XeroCon 2024 conference from August 2024. We touch on key carbon accounting partnerships with Greenly and Sumday. And we explore the business case for accountants to extend into the carbon accounting sector.

The overall discussion includes these points:

• 0:00 - Introductions
• 0:36 - How Somers focused her career and "came home" sustainability: Her first steps in the mining market.
• 2:20 - Beyond mining: Her shift to telco services, technology services and Telstra.
• 3:55 - Early discussions about automated decision making and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) before generative AI emerged.
• 5:25 - Moving from telco services to SaaS software: What attracted Somers to Xero.
• 7:30 - How to build the foundational structure to ultimately set Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 goals.
• 10:05 - Xero's focus on Scope 3 data quality: Key takeaways so far on carbon accounting and supplier data gathering.
• 12:35 - Are major cloud service providers (CSPs) making progress sharing their carbon accounting data and data center information with SaaS partners?
• 14:15 - We can't get away from the fact that generative AI is energy intensive but be careful not to descend into sustainability hysteria.
• 15:35 - Xero partnership with Sumday -- a carbon accounting company: Key takeaways so far. Why accountants will likely expand into carbon accounting.
• 17:00 - Xero partnership with Greenly -- a carbon accounting software platform for small business.
• 18:20 - Key reasons accounting firms and accountants are expanding into carbon accounting. Early movers are in the United Kingdom and Australia. But keep an eye on the United States. As well as small businesses working with large partners on supply chain requirements. Here's why.
• 20:47 - Recap of XeroCon 2024 conference in August 2024. Key themes on-stage as well as hallway discussions.
• 22:45 - Key sustainability priorities for 2025. Next potential moves for Xero. Keep an eye on Scope 3, and potential ways to simplify such efforts.
• 25:05 - For more information, check out www.Xero.com/sustainability.
• 25:38 - Conclusion.